Bishops and their Duties

Today I read Doctrine and Covenants section 72, a section entirely on bishops and their duties in the kingdom. I always find it interesting to look at the church in its early days in this dispensation as compared to now because there are so many things that have changed as the church has grown. But to my understanding the role of the bishop has not changed all that much.

The first duty talked about in this section is that the bishop receives the funds, lands and commodities of those who are consecrating them to the Lord and then disperses them for the good of the poor and the needy as he sees fit. While the manner that members do this has changed, it is still the bishop that takes charge of the funds the members donate or pay to the Lord and he is still in charge of caring for the needy in the ward in which he presides. Of course in this day and age members do not donate all their lands and funds, but rather they donate fast offerings to care for the needy and of course members pay tithing as opposed to giving everything they own to the Lord.

Second, it says all elders must give an account of their stewardship to the bishop and that in return the bishop will give a certificate of their stewardship identifying them as a faithful steward and laborer. Now, this does not happen quite so much anymore, but the certificate sure sounds to me like a temple recommend. Later in this section and in others it talks about if an elder goes to travel to take a certificate signed by 3 elders to prove they are in good standing. Today we just take our temple recommend with us to prove that we are worthy to perform ordinances or attend a temple, but we must account to the bishop, or one of his counselors, that we are worthy of that right and privilege.

This part also reminded me of confessing our sins and receiving a remission for our sins. Now, we do not believe that in order to be forgiven of our sins all we must do is confess our sins. True forgiveness of our sins comes from following the repentance process, of which confessing our sins is only a part. We must bring a sacrifice worthy of our Heavenly Father to Him, a broken heart and a contrite spirit. However, I DO think that the modern day practice of some religions that all you need to be forgiven of your sins is to confess them to the proper religious authority because Latter-day Saints also believe that if certain sins are serious enough, they need to be confessed to the proper earthly authority. But it does not stop there. The bishop is NOT the one who forgives you of your sins, he is merely the one who says you are worthy to again participate in sacred ordinances. Only God can forgive sins.

Lastly, the bishop is in charge of providing assistance to those who were given charge to publish the revelations. Now, we have already talked about how the bishop is in charge of providing assistance to those who need it in his area of stewardship, and I want to talk about another aspect of the bishop's duties. Rather, the last area of the bishop's stewardship I wished to talk about that came to mind as I read this was a bishop is responsible for the spiritual welfare of his congregation also. A bishop has the right and privilege to receive revelation for those under his care. He can receive revelation regarding their spiritual, or temporal, welfare. He is also the one who relays revelation from the First Presidency and the Stake Presidency when they cannot be present themselves. He is the ward's spiritual leader.

As I stated at the beginning, it is interesting to note that while so much has changed from the way things were in Joseph Smith's time, the role of the bishop is essentially the same. And it is a comfort that the church is so orderly, at least it is to me. I still would have a testimony of the truthfulness of the gospel, but I really appreciate that it is orderly and makes sense too. Until tomorrow.